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From the world to the West End: Finding a home at Bohem

The combination of location, strong architectural design and off-the-plan buying concessions was enough to convince globe-trotting professional Justine to put down further roots in Adelaide with a Bohem apartment.

Justine has lived around the world, but she can't seem to shake an attachment to her home town of Adelaide.

â€œI've lived lots of other places overseas and interstate but I always end up coming back,â€ she says. â€œI think there is genuine comfort living in Adelaide.â€

Although travelling is still on her mind - she's headed back to Britain to complete a short course at the University of Oxford in the next few months - she's also getting more comfortable with committing herself to Adelaide.

Justine's recent decision to buy a Bohem apartment is the second time she's bought a property in the city, and both her purchases have been on the south-west side of town. We meet her in the precinct's Cantina Sociale - a wine bar that has become a favourite haunt for Justine - and she tells us Bohem's location nearby was a key part of her choice to invest there.

â€œI use the [Central] Market daily, my gym and my work are on this side of the city,â€ she says.

â€œThis side has everywhere I would go out - it's walking distance to Peel Street and Leigh Street and there's other places I go that are back this side. There are more places opening in the pocket right here as well.â€

She currently lives in her own apartment on Halifax Street, but saw moving to Bohem as an opportunity to improve her day-to-day without leaving the neighbourhood in which she has established her life.

â€œThe two main things were having more light and more space,â€ she says of the two-bedroom apartment she has bought in the under-construction Bohem complex.

â€œAnd I really liked this building - the design, because it doesn't look like your average apartment building. I was really attracted to that and the fact it has two different facades, and that the living garden on the outside will be maintained throughout the seasons.

â€œIt's a lifestyle benefit without too much radical change.â€

Purchasing property as a young professional without the back-up of a second income is often near impossible, but Justine's desire to live in the city means she's benefitted from Government policies designed to encourage the development of more housing in the square mile.

Her original apartment was bought with the help of the first home buyers' grant, while her Bohem purchase was supported by the soon-to-expire off-the-plan concession, which drastically reduced the stamp duty she had to pay.

â€œThe stamp duty concession was certainly something that appealed to me. To not have to pay all of that is great because it's a very significant amount of money,â€ she says.

â€œWhen I looked at what I would pay, I think it should have been $27,000 and I ended up paying $4,000 - because the developers contributed an amount as well.â€

Even with all this, there's still a wistful look in Justine's eye as she sips her wine and talks of the places she's been and those she would like to visit.

But the changing face of Adelaide - its new apartments, bars, policies, and neighbourhoods - has kept her here this long, and it seems like it has convinced her, and hundreds like her, to stick around and see what happens next.

REMARKS:Â The Off-the-plan stamp duty concession is set to run out on June 30. Bohem apartments bought before that date are eligible for the concession.Â